What To Do WIth Unwanted Mice

Mice are related to rats and are humankind’s eldest pest. They are understandably attracted to our living spaces. Our houses are filled with junk, heat, security, and a myriad of food that mice like to eat. Sadly, there's no way to live in peace with mice. Not only are they dirty, the parasites they carry pose a considerable health risk to anyone in the house. Believe it or not, fleas that lived on mice and rats passed on the bubonic plague. While the plague is long gone, many other diseases are still passed on by mice and their parasites.
Mice multiply in great amounts. Though many people think of bunnies and reproduction, a single pair of mice are capable of having up to 100 babies per season. There are commonly two mating seasons a year for mice, so you can see how many mice can be in a house by the end of a normal year. In this article, we’re going to focus on mice and most importantly how to get rid of mice.

There are several ways to avoid mice entirely. Avoiding locating mice is far better than dirty traps, pest control, and several other ways of removing rodents later. Preventing mice involves making your house unattractive to mice. Mice only forage roughly 25 feet from their nests for food. So if you seal off all the food, then the mice will detect that they need a new place to have a nest.

Sealing off the food consists of putting everything that normally comes in cardboard boxes into containers made of metal, glass, or heavy-duty plastic. Mice can't eat through these things, and in the case of metal or glass, they can't sniff the food through them either. This draws them to suspect there is little or no food to be had. Along with closing up the food located in the house, dishes should never be left in the sink overnight, and all faucets that drip need to be fixed. This way, not only have you taken their food base, you have robbed their water supply that makes life uninhabitable for mouse. This is a wonderful way to regulate and eventually get rid of mice.

Outside the home should also be as mouse-proof as can be. A mouse can get in a hole as small as a dime. The foremost thing to do is to take a visual survey outside your house and see if there are any gaps that a mouse might squeeze through. These gaps don't have to be near the ground, a mouse can scale up to 2 feet. Once these gaps are detected, they should be plugged up with something a mouse can't eat through like steel wool coupled with repair putty or metal plating.

Birdfeeders, pet food and compost heaps also attract mice. In fact, no “How To Get Rid Of Mice” article would be absolute without discussing that these things must really be at least 50 feet from the house. Your pet food and bird food ought to also be kept in heavy-duty plastic containers with firmly fitting lids. Your typical trashcan can be gnawed through, so be sure that you get a specialized plastic bin for this very purpose. They are available commercially.
Now that we've talked about the strategies to keep clear of mice, it's time to talk about pest control of these rodents if you in fact do get them. Many people locate homemade natural ways better than sloppy traps or toxic poisons. Believe it or not, poison should not be used at all for a mice infestation. While it seems like a good idea to bring in pest control to wipe out all the mice all together, think about the fact that the mice are dying behind your walls. Hundreds of little mouse corpses do smell and can in fact propagate more diseases than the mice themselves.

Undoubtedly, peppermint oil is the most popular of the homemade natural ways when it comes to how to get rid of mice. Mice loathe the smell of peppermint. That makes peppermint oil in a sprayer a fantastic idea. For more protection, you can plant mint around the outside of your house. That will not only get rid of the mice but it will freshen the air as an added perk.

Other homemade natural ways to get rid of mice comprise of combining a gallon of water, 1 tablespoon of Tabasco sauce, and half a cup of detergent. Put this concoction in a spray bottle and apply in all places you believe there are mice. Mice hate the smell or taste of this either, so they will leave in a hurry. Whichever of these homemade natural ways you use to get rid of mice, it's necessary to keep reapplying a minimum of once a month to keep them away completely.

Traps are another effective way to get rid of mice. Frequently, when the subject of traps is brought up, the primary thing that people think of are messy traps like the standard mousetrap (the one that breaks the mouse's neck,) or sticky rodent paper, (stronger flypaper) proficient at catching numerous mice concurrently. These types of traps have one main dilemma; they’re messy traps. No one wants to see, much less touch a dead mouse. Luckily for us, there are different traps in the how to get rid of mice arsenal.

Many current day traps are built so you never have to see or touch a dead mouse, but they're still going to be just as dead as these old-fashioned messy traps. Once you get your traps full, then you can just throw all those traps away.

The preferred way to get rid of mice is to never get them in the first place. This can be done by keeping virtually all food inside the house enclosed in glass, plastic or metal containers along with making sure that all food sources outside the house or at least 50 feet from the house, including pet food and birdfeeders. Natural ways to get rid of mice include peppermint oil and sprays made out of Tabasco sauce and soap. Mice are feared pests and with good reason. It's not at all unnatural to fear mice in your house. But once proper steps are taken, you won’t have to worry about it from then on.